Changing Focus

It's the start of a new year and I'm tweaking several areas of my life--one of which is now this blog. I didn't post very often because I felt like I had to have profound thoughts in order to do so; but the reality is I don't have profound thoughts very often (!) and I originally started the blog just to give me a reason to write for something other than work. I enjoy writing, so therefore I'm just going to write, darn it!

So this blog will become much more daily thoughts, little updates on what I'm doing both in terms of quilting and in terms of "the rest of my life" (which makes it seem like quilting is a much larger part of my life than it often has the chance to be!).

I'm taking a lunch break now from my first day back at work after a blessed two weeks of vacation! Re-entry is always a little tricky, what with wading through dozens of emails and trying to remember where I was on various projects. But the vacation was wonderful. I spent the first week at Disney with the family, then (of course) celebrating Christmas over the course of a few days with various family gatherings. The second week was much more relaxed and I got significant work done on a new quilt project.

The new quilt project is a wallhanging I designed myself on EQ6. Nothing terribly complicated--it's a bear paw block on point as a center medallion, with a border of flying geese followed by a border of log cabin blocks, then a narrow inner and a wider outer border. Pretty standard stuff. What makes it special is three things:
1.) I designed it specifically for a set of fabric coordinates I'd been drooling over and then rec'd as a Christmas gift last year from my quilter-Mom. I couldn't find a pattern I liked that I felt really used the coordinates well, so ended up using EQ. First time I've ever done that.
2.) It uses my three fave blocks: bear paw, flying geese, and log cabin. First time I've made a bear paw block.
3.) This is the first project I've made from a design I've done on EQ. More or less, the first time I've designed my own quilt.

I have one other wallhanging I made without using a pattern but it was very early on in my venture in quilting and is only snowball blocks, so I don't even really say that I "designed" it, since design wasn't much of a factor. I also have lots of other designs I've done on EQ that have never seen the light of day--I use the program mostly like a coloring book, but now that I'm seeing how it works to make a design on my computer screen come to life, it'll be easier next time, I'm sure.

I'm loving working on this wallhanging, which I've dubbed The Katerina Project since the fabric line, or maybe just one of the fabrics in it, was named "Katerina". I've only got the center medallion and the first border done so far. Hoping to get the log cabin pieces cut tonight, maybe have the border done sometime next week since I'm out a lot this week and am traveling this weekend.

So that's it--just a quick update on my life. No profound thoughts. Hard to be profound when my stomach is growling; I'd better go eat lunch before I start gnawing on my mouse!